This week we travel to Spa for round 2, where Grat and Kcender will try to gain ground on Matthew in the LMP1 class and killagorilla will try to consolidate his early lead in the GT3 standings.

The weather is a cool 14 degrees, with very light winds.

You will need the OSRW PIT MOD.

RACE RESULTS
SEASON STANDINGS

Penalties
None. The start was clean. 1/4 of the way into the first race lap, Bacchulum slid on a kerb on Wellington Straight which resulted in him spinning across the track, which impacted quite a few cars. That had nothing to do with the rolling start procedure - it was just a racing mishap of cold tyres on a slippery kerb - which saw several people end up just being passengers in the unfolding crash.

Round Points

 

Name	Points	Bonus	Pos
Matthew111	25		1
Grat	18	1	2
Kcender87	15		3
Diehard	12		4
Wally	10		5
Seanus	8		6
Keith	6		7
Mael	5		8
JamieP	2		9
Bacchulum	0		10

killagorilla	25	1	1
Shayne	18		2
Joe	15		3
rexology	12		4
Rob	10		5
Shameless	8		6
Dave O	6		7
DC	5		8
Jeremy	2		9
Freezer	1		10
Phil.8	0.5		11
Flattop	0		12

Just a reminder that the first S19 round is next Tuesday.
You will need the OSRW PIT MOD.


Each car must do a CPS for tyres. I also changed my mind about the tyre warmers - there will be NO tyre warmers. It makes the starts more exciting, needing more caution.


We will do a practice rolling start just this round. LMP1's will stay in 2nd gear. We'll proceed around the track in single file, reforming into side by side double file onto the straight, as per our starting positions on the grid. The race leader goes when he crosses the start line.


One thing we learned from the practice race is that the LMP1's need to be careful when pulling back onto the racing line after passing a GT3. Don't block the GT3's braking room into the next corner, or otherwise cut them off.


Weather: Following the FIA WEC calendar, the Silverstone round is in April, when the weather is 14°. Wind 32 kph S.

Next Tuesday will be a 2 hour endurance race at Daytona International Speedway (Road Course) [ download ]

Cars
Corvette C7R (with 50% restrictor)
Ferrari 458 GT2
BMW M3 GT2

No restrictions on tyres, no mandatory pit stops. Fuel rate will be 0.8x (so cars can go somewhere between 1h30 to 1h45 on one tank), to widen the pit window.

Qualifying
To save time on race night, qualifying will be done on the practice server over the coming week before the race. Post a time on the practice server, and that will be your qualifying time in your nominated car.

Qualifying times are here. You have until Monday night (9th) to set a qualifying time and nominate a car.

Race
The race will start at 8:15 pm (after a practice session), and will go for 2 hours + 1 lap.

Sign Ups (and car nomination)
1. Wally - Corvette
2. Mael - BMW
3. Buellersdayoff
4. RussG - BMW
5. JamieP - Ferrari
6. Shameless - BMW
7. Shayne - Ferrari
8. Flattop - Corvette
9. Rob - Corvette
10. Phil - Ferrari
11. Grat - Ferrari
12. Seanus - Best Q


Here's the starting line up based on qualifying times:

 

1	Grat - Ferrari	01:46.9
2	Buellersdayoff - BMW	01:47.9
3	Phil - Ferrari	01:47.9
4	RussG - BMW	01:47.9
5	Seanus - Ferrari	01:48.7
6	Shameless - BMW	01:49.3
7	Rob - Corvette	01:49.4
8	Mael - BMW	01:49.8
9	Shayne - Ferrari
10	Wally - Corvette
11	JamieP - Ferrari
12	Flattop - Corvette

After more fuel load testing, it seems that all the GT3s can relatively easily do an hour race on 1 tank, and in the LMP1s, the Audi and Porsche can only do 45 to 55ish mins (with the Porsche being slightly thirstier), while the Toyota can do a little more than an hour and so in theory won't need to refuel.

I'm tempted to ditch the mandatory tyre pit stop, and leave it completely open, so each cars' strengths and weaknesses can come into play. The Porsche is fastest, but thirstiest. The Toyota is less balanced to drive in my opinion, but it's more frugal on the fuel.

Of course we might find that any of the cars in either class will need to pit for tyre management in any case.

So can anyone see any flaws if we ditch the CPS and leave pitting entirely open?

Season 19 will be a two class season loosely based on the FIA World Endurance Cup.

Cars
LMP1 Class
Audi R18 e-tron quattro 2014
Toyota TS040 Hybrid 2014
Porsche 919 Hybrid 2015 (with 75% restrictor for parity)

GT3 Class
Audi R8 LMS 2016
BMW Z4 GT3
Ferrari 488 GT3
Lamborghini Huracan GT3
Mercedes-Benz AMG GT3
Nissan GT-R GT3

Schedule
The season will probably start Oct 17.

R1, Oct 17: Silverstone GP
R2, Oct 24: Spa
R3, Oct 31: Circuit de la Sarthe (Le Mans) [DOWNLOAD]
R4, Nov 7: Nurburgring GP (Formula)
R5, Nov 14: Paul Ricard Blancpain [DOWNLOAD]
R6, Nov 21: Shanghai [DOWNLOAD]
R7, Nov 28: Bahrain [DOWNLOAD]

Race Format
Races will be 1 hour duration + 1 lap, with 1 CPS for a mandatory tyre change. The CPS is required as some cars can go more than an hour on a full tank, while others can't. This way, each car will have to pit at least once.

Tyre warmers will be ON. No restrictions on tyres. Fuel and tyre wear multipliers are 1x.

Race start will be a rolling start (where we will proceed around the track single file and then grid up side by side in rolling formation onto the final straight). The LMP1 class should stay in 2nd gear on the formation lap to maintain a consistent speed. Once the leader passes the start line, he can go.

Classes
Changing classes is discouraged, however if you must, you can, but you don't carry over points from one class to the other.

Points
As per FIA WEC, for each class: 25, 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 5, 2, 1 then 0.5 for everyone else who classifies as a finisher (attains 70% race distance).
1 point for pole position in each class.

Penalties
50% restrictor applied for next round for causing lap 1 grief (or 10 second post-race 1 penalty in the final round).

Sign Up

LMP1
1. Bacchulum - Porsche
2. Mael - Toyota
3. Diehard - Porsche
4. Seanus - Toyota
5. Wally - Audi
6. Grat - Porsche
7. Matthew111 - Toyota
8. Kcender87 - Audi
9. Buellersdayoff - Porsche
10. Gymnastic hippo - Porsche
11. JamieP - Audi
12. Dr. Dinkum - Toyota
13. Keithsgillan - Audi
14. Slow_As - Audi

GT3
1. Shayne - Lamborghini
2. Rob - Mercedes
3. DC - BMW
4. Gratulin - Lamborghini
5. killagorilla - Lamborghini
6. Freezer - Nissan
7. Dave O - Mercedes (red)
8. rexology - Lamborghini
9. RussG - BMW
10. Shameless - Mercedes
11. AJ - Ferrari
12. Phil.8 - Ferrari
13. Joe - Lamborghini
14. Jeremy - Lamborghini
15. Flattop - Nissan
16. Hotdog - BMW
17. Aaron Thomas - Audi

RACE 1 RESULTS
RACE 2 RESULTS
SEASON STANDINGS
SEASON STATS

Penalties
Race 1
Not a single contact on lap 1!

Race 2
Russ and Mael collided and Russ came off the track, but both cars were essentially side by side on either side of the racing line, and impacted side to side. Because that would have been very hard to avoid, it's a racing incident.

Round Points
Kcender87   94
DC   91
ab156   90
Bacchulum   88
buellersdayoff   84
Mael   82
Matthew111   75
Freezer   74
Shayne   73
killagorilla   73
AJ   71
diehard   59
GymHippo   59
RussG   57
Wally   50
Doobs   50
bradc   50
Seanus   48
Phil.8   41
Dave O   41
JamieP   40

Congratulations to DC and Kcender on the race wins, and Kcender for the overall round win.

Season Podium
Congratulations to season 18 champion, Phil.8. Phil had 100% restrictor for all of the season, leading the standings after every round, fighting of challenges from Kcender early in the season and Matthew later. Congratulations to Matthew and also to Mael who climbed the standings steadily in the latter half of the season to manage 3rd.

1. Phil.8, 487
2. Matthew111, 476
3. Mael, 474

Teams Podium
1. Krahl Racing, 932
2. Maki Engineering, 898
3. Struggle Street Racing Crew, 875

Congratulations to team champions, Phil and Joe.
Maki Engineering swapped positions with Struggle Street Racing Crew in the final round.

With the Excort season drawing to a close, it's time to start thinking about the next season. I'd be keen to try a multiclass season, with something like these two options:

• Historic: Porsche 962 C Long Tail/Mercedes-Benz C9 1989 LM/Porsche 911 GT1-98 versus Porsche 908 LH/Ford GT40/Ferrari 330 P4
  
• Modern: Porsche 919 Hybrid 2015/Toyota TS040 Hybrid 2014/Audi R18 e-tron quattro 2014 versus some comparable GT3's

I see it being like an hour race, set up so that the faster class will lap the slower class several times. I'd use ballast and/or restrictor for certain makes to try to get them closer in terms of performance. One thing I'd like to achieve somehow is fairly balanced numbers in each class, i.e. I wouldn't want to see everyone in GT3's with only a couple of LMP1 cars.
What do you reckon?